South African Xenophobia and Martin Luther King Jnr.

I wrote this post on Facebook recently. It was shared 39 times so it must have resonated with some folks.

My spirit has been a bit down lately reading about the Rhodes statue, etc. The xenophobic violence, the ‘one settler one bullet’ cry by the so-called born frees and the visiting Robert Mugabe who is a mass murderer and ultimate subjugator being lauded as a hero.

This makes me feel that the so-called real South African tribe has no room for anyone who is different, be it the White, the Senegal, the Zimbabwean, the Mozambican, the Malawian, etc. I get the feeling that if they could put us on ships today and be done with us, they would. So, in times like this I go to Luther, Seneca, Kennedy and Zeno to calm my anxious soul.

Today I journeyed with King. So, for all who are racist, xenophobic and genocidal, please read some excerpts of King’s speech below. If you have an ounce of intelligence and anything like benevolence in your soul, you’ll know that he speaks the truth and you’ll know what the right thing is to do. Let’s embrace the spirit of ubuntu because I’m because of you and you are because of me.

Let’s reflect on King’s words.

Peace on Earth

Now let me suggest first that if we are to have peace on Earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective. No individual can live alone; no nation can live alone, and as long as we try, the more we are going to have war in this world. Now the judgment of God is upon us, and we must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools.
It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality.

Did you ever stop to think that you can’t leave for your job in the morning without being dependent on most of the world? You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom and reach over for the sponge, and that’s handed to you by a Pacific Islander. You reach for a bar of soap, and that’s given to you at the hands of a Frenchman. And then you go into the kitchen to drink your coffee for the morning, and that’s poured into your cup by a South American. And maybe you want tea: that’s poured into your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you’re desirous of having cocoa for breakfast, and that’s poured into your cup by a West African. And then you reach over for your toast, and that’s given to you at the hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. And before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half of the world. This is the way our universe is structured; this is its interrelated quality. We aren’t going to have peace on Earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.